Downtown Owl ending explained: What happens to Horace's wife?

Released on April 23, 2024, in the United States, Downtown Owl was a comedy-drama film that grappled with important topics such as loneliness and self-exploration through the movie's three main characters, Julia Rabia, Horace Jones, and Mitch Hrlicka.

Julia has recently moved to Owl, a fictional town in North Dakota where she has taken up the job of an English teacher in a local high school. While there, she meets Horace (an elderly man who mostly tends to his bedridden wife) and Mitch (a young boy who plays for the school's basketball team where Julia teaches).

Over time, their lives become intricately intertwined, partly owing to the town's small population. However, their journeys are very different. While Julia embarks on a journey of self-discovery which she succeeds in by the end of the film, Horace slips into depression after his wife's passing which occurs somewhere around the second half of the movie.

Mitch, on the other hand, gets engulfed in the deadly blizzard that attacked Owl.

Disclaimer: This article contains spoilers. Please read at your discretion.

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Horace's wife succumbs to her condition in Downtown Owl

Downtown Owl's ending might have been one of the most confusing endings ever. However, certain aspects of the film were not as confusing as its ending. This includes the death of Horace's wife who dies in the second half of the movie.

From the beginning, when the audiences are introduced to Horace's character, they are also introduced to his agony arising out of his wife's health condition.

His wife has been in a paralyzed state for years, and Horace has also been taking care of her ever since she got bedridden. He is so used to taking care of her that when he loses her midway through the film, he does not know what to do without having those responsibilities.

He goes into severe depression and develops a deterrence towards life in general.

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Mitch dies in the end of Downtown Owl

Towards the end of Downtown Owl, the lives of all three main characters in the movie are on the line owing to a deadly blizzard that consumes the town. While Julia is able to make it out of the blizzard unharmed after locking herself in her car,

Horace is able to escape it by going through extreme measures, which ends with him standing unclothed in his kitchen at some point.

Mitch, however, does not survive the blizzard. He breathes his last while cocooned on a tree bark with the words: "I will sleep when I'm dead. And this is what I was thinking, until I fell asleep, and it was true," echoing in the background. His hand drops from the branch, signalling his demise.

Later on, Mitch's death is also addressed in Owl's local newspaper.

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Julia finally realizes the true meaning of life by the end of Downtown Owl

The blizzard that took over the town of Owl brought with it a life-altering lesson for Julia. Having been stuck in her car for a considerable amount of time, Julia had all the time to rethink her life's decisions and have epiphanies, which she did.

And, when the blizzard was over and she came out of the car, it seemed as if she had gained some newfound confidence, the confidence of being okay with things around her. Suddenly she was not worried about the next thing she had to do but was instead focused on the present.

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Downtown Owl is available for viewing on Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, YouTube, and Google Play Movies.